when the events of 911 took place? Like Kennedy's assassination, this is one of those historical events I think we will all remember what we were doing at the time. I was on the highway driving to one of our company stores. I heard on the radio what was going on about half way through the 90 minute drive. No work was done that day.........we all just watched the news.

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I first heard about "a plane crashing into the WTC" while getting ready for school. I assumed it was a Cessna or something tiny - some idiot flying Visual Flight Rules above the cloud ceiling and didn't see the big tower sticking out of the ground (unfortunately I was wrong).

Then I heard about the second plane hitting the WTC. I assumed it was a problem with the air traffic control - maybe someone hacked the radars/flight control software (if they used software in NYC at the time?). The fact that these were hijacked planes was utterly unbelievable and I had to assume it was something less serious. When I heard about the 2nd plane, I was driving to my 3rd week of law school. We had our first class of the morning from 9:00-10:00 - we told the professor what had happened, but he pressed on and ignored it.

When the second class of the day started at 10:00 am, enough people were crying hysterically (including the professor who had lots of NYC/DC contacts) that we just sat there and the professor sort of talked to us and we kept spreading the news as people found out from friends/family on the ground what was happening. Someone came in and said the WTC had collapsed - unbelievable. Some girl came in yelling "the Pentagon has been hit" and another wave of fear struck the classroom.

That was the end of the day as far as classes were concerned. I went down to the recreation room and watched the tv mouth agape for some time - maybe 10 minutes, maybe and hour, maybe two. Then went home and watched the events unfold on tv.

National Tragedies - Now I understand what everyone felt when Kennedy was assassinated and when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

I was about half a mile from the Pentagon in Crystal City. You could see the smoke from the window. DW was working from home on Capitol Hill. There was a loud sonic boom about 45 minutes after the Pentagon was hit. It ratteled the walls at work and at home. DW thouht the Capitol got hit and insisted I come right home. I was trying to do the right thing (whatever that might be) and stay at work until we could make sure all employees got out safely so I incurred her great displeasure by not fleeing my post of duty. When I finally left, the police were blocking the 14th street bridge into the city. With the traffic jams outbound it would have been hours to get to the Hill any other way. I finally convinced the police that I had to get to our downtown building to deal with router problems needed to maintain data comm and they let me cross the bridge.

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I was at work Iming with a friend on Yahoo, the kid from the next office came in and said the WTC was hit by a plane. As Don said we all thought it was a small plane making a mistake, that was until we all stood there watching as the second plane hit. There were about 20 of us in the breakroom watching, not believing what we had seen. I rushed back to my office to tell the person I was iming with what was happening, he quickly signed off to go and watch. The rest of the day was spent watching TV, fielding phone calls asking if we were open. We closed up early and I spent the rest of the day and evening watching the news. Dh was very upset that I didn't come right home, he was very worried they would do something here in Boston. I work close to both the Hancock Tower and the Prudential Tower and he wanted me home!

Challenger - I was on my way to work and when I arrived everyone was crowded around a tv on the sales floor. I worked in NH at that time and a couple of the guys had kids in the school where the teacher on board taught.

JFK - I was in the second grade, my grandfather came to get me and the only other thing I remember is my mother crying and watching little JJ salute as the casket went by.

I was sitting in my office when one of my managers stuck her head in the door and asked if Iíd heard about a plane crashing into the WTC. Our stodgy company had no TV set anywhere in the corporate office, so the only way we had to learn what was happening was the internet. Most employees didnít have access, so many of them migrated to my office and stood behind me to watch. CNN, MSNBC etc. websites were getting so many hits it was difficult to get the page to refresh. After an hour or so, a couple of employees who lived nearby went home and brought back small TVís and set them up in the break room. I recall everyone going home about 3:00 since absolutely no work took place that day.

I also vividly recall that my two daughters (who lived in San Antonio and Houston) were both in Los Angeles on business. Although they worked in separate industries, a training class for one and a meeting for the other resulted in the two of them staying over a couple of days in LA for a little sisterly bonding and sightseeing. They were sharing a hotel room and the morning of 9/11 DW#1 was on the shuttle bus from the hotel to LAX before anything hit the news. When she got to the airport there was mass confusion and she called me to see if I knew what was going on.

After giving her a quick rundown, I told her to get back on the shuttle and go back to the hotel, find her sister, and not to go anywhere until we knew what was going on. They stayed three more days, and not knowing how much longer it would be before they could get a flight (and not sure they really wanted to), they drove a rental car 1,500 miles to get back home. It was fortunate for them that they hung on to their rental rather than returning it on 9/11 as planned. Even then I think two far-from-unattractive (if I do say so myself) 20-somethings had to do some serious sweet talking to the young guy at the Hertz counter to get the OK for a one way rental. I say that because two very unattractive 40-something male coworkers in a similar situation in Charlotte, NC had to rent a Ryder truck to get home to TX!

Challenger: I have no recollection of where I was when I learned of that tragedy.

JFK assassination: I was a HS soph, at home eating lunch and watching the news on TV when Walter Crankshaft broke in to say there was a report shots had been fired on the Presidentís motorcade.

Pearl Harbor: Before my time. Maybe we should ask Jarhead what he was doing that day.

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I was at home - just returned from a business trip in Australia the day before.

I remember two things about that trip.
One on the way out a woman in Denver had a large folding knife - 5" blade. Security found it in her carry on and gave it back to her.
Two on the way back in LA I remember looking at the security guards and thinking they look like high school kids wearing their first suit.

The events happened just before bedtime here, so went to bed oblivious. Woke up the morning of the 12th, saw the headlines in the morning paper, flipped on CNN. They were running quick summaries of the day's events by then. Unbelievable.

Challenger: walked into dorm room, roommate told me "the space shuttle just exploded." Remembered (barely) Apollo 13, so could believe it, but again hit the TV.

I was driving in to work. *I heard on the radio that there had been some kind of explosion at the World Trade Center, but didn't think too much of it (because I remembered the 1993 car bombing there). *The announcer said they'd have more news as it became available.

I got to work and tried to log on to the New York Times webpage, and couldn't get to it. *Still, I didn't think too much about it, figured the server was down.

My office mate came in about half an hour after I did, and he's the one who told me what was really happening. *I think I was one of the last people in the U.S. to know.

As for the Challenger, I was driving home from the grocery store when I heard it on the radio. *Got home and turned on the TV.

I was at the NASA/Navy facility at Wallops Island, Va. teaching an online class when the network went down. I told the class to take a break while I called the network weenies. They went out to the lobby where there was a TV and came back into the classroom and said "I don't think your going to get the network back up, come look at the TV". The Navy has a highly classified facility there so they immediately told us to leave and they locked down the base. I had to drive back to the D.C. area. I heard on the radio that the Pentagon had been hit and I was wondering if maybe I was headed in the wrong direction. But since my DW and DD were in Maryland I continued home. I realized right away that the world I had woken up in that morning was changed forever.

Grumpy

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WTC--I lived in San Francisco, so this happened very early in the morning for us. My husband was making coffee and called down to me to tune in CNN on the bedroom TV. I knew immediately this was no small matter and possibly deliberate, and I was scared. When the second plane hit, I knew we were under attack and feared for my son, who teaches in a heavily Jewish school district, my daughter, who lived just over the river from Boston, my nephew, a student at NYU, and the coming fate of the world. I called my parents and brothers--although they're East Coasters, and big bro lives close to NYC, they heard the news from me. My nephew and his dorm-mates walked toward the site from their dorm not far away. My brother the dentist identified a couple of dead people via dental records. So much for the theory that Jews were warned--they were Jewish and worked in the towers.

Challenger--I was at work at a small consulting and training company, and a class was being held on-site. Someone in the class called his office during break, found out, and informed everyone. I felt very sad--I always followed the space missions and was familiar with the names and backgrounds of those aboard.

Kennedy assasination--I was a 9th grader. We were in our homerooms waiting to go to a pep rally, when the principal announced over the PA that the President had been shot. Cynic as I was at 14, I presumed it was probably a flesh wound and after a few days of hubbub, all would be as it was. Our assembly was cut short, and we were led back to our homerooms. The princiapl came back on the PA to announce that President Kennedy was dead, and the buses were being brought out early to take us home. One boy, who was fatherless and identified strongly with JFK, was crying in the hall. We were a liberal suburb of NYC, the children of mostly Kennedy supporters. It felt like the end of history--and part of history, too, as we had of course learned about the assassinations of other presidents and Archduke Ferdinand. My mother was home from work early. She had jsut washed her hair and I put it up in rollers. An event almost as rare as a US Presidential assisnation occurred: we were allowed to watch TV on a school night. We also had no school the next day--maybe a couple of days. My borhters & I watched TV all day and saw Jack Ruby kill Lee Harvey Oswald live on TV. It seemed like the world was losing its mind.

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9/11: at work. A supplier on the phone told us and we kept tuned to the radio. All I remember is a lot of confusion about what was happening. We did manage to see some photos as soon as they were posted.. didn't get any work done that day.. just a sense of nausea and queasiness.. I left for home in the early afternoon in kind of a daze. I remember the streets were eerily quiet. I had a ticket for that exact flight (Boston>LA; AA flight 11) leaving the next week. There but for the Grace of God.. etc. My commute took me right past the Newton hotel on Rt. 9 where, as I later found out, the hijackers stayed.

Ironically I'd taken leave for 11-12-13 Sep so I was lazing at home. I was up early and had turned on the TV to program a couple VCRs.

I ended up watching everything almost as it happened. Otherwise I would've been stuck on the base organizing building bomb searches and locking it all down.

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Kennedy Assassination: *In Mrs. Carnahan's third grade class in Rantoul, Ill. *I remember her being called out of class, then returning to tell us the president was dead. *Even as a third-grader I distinctly remember that the room seemed darker all of a sudden, as though a cloud had gone over the sun. *I remember the teachers crying in the halls as we went home -- that was scarier than anything.

Challenger: *In bed with partner (this was early in California)-- his mother called with the news.

9/11: *In bed with partner (again -- early). *A friend of his called to tell us the Trade Center had been hit by terrorists. *We figured it was another bomb in the basement and groggily went back to sleep. *I understood the scope of the attack only when I arrived at work -- the TV was on in the reception area and everyone was gathered around, half in shock.

I distinctly remember having this thought: *"I have GOT to get out of this job -- NOW." *

I thought about all the poor souls who had gotten up to go to work that morning on a perfectly normal day. They showered, ate breakfast, kissed the kids goodbye, and endured the commute, like always. *Maybe they were rushing in to "catch up" on work (as if they ever could), or to prepare for a big presentation, or to beat the line at the coffee shop... *

...and without any warning at all they find themselves standing on a ledge with fire to their backs and "death by gravity" in front of them. *

I remember all the papers fluttering around -- reports, or presentations, or timecards, or bills -- papers that people had worked hard over -- papers that human beings had spent thousands of hours of their limited lives creating. *All those little pieces of human existence slipping away through the wind and smoke.

"None of us has the next second, or minute, or hour guaranteed to us." I remember thinking. *I am wasting my life in a pointless career in a souless industry. *I have GOT to get OUT of this job."

And here I sit in front of the same monitor, at the same job, generating the same reports and presentations and paper, five years later. *

9/11/2001: I was teaching a class on 3D image registration methods. We were interrupted by someone announcing that the government (including us) had shut down and we all had to leave. I recall that the traffic to leave the parking lots was horrendous -- most people wouldn't let others merge into their lanes as the roads merged, and so it took an hour to drive about 300 feet. Then suddenly all the selfish people had gotten out, and the nice people were left behind, and merging started being easy and things flowed easily.

That afternoon, I couldn't take watching any more on TV, I was too angry. So I sat down and banged out a new registration program, to complement the one I'd been teaching that morning. Funny, but today I'm working on yet another registration program, after doing other things for 5 years in between.

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